Trade And Society The Amoy Network On The China Coast 1683 1735

The book examines the social and economic changes in south Fukien (Fujian) on the southeast coast of China during late imperial times. Faced with land shortages and overpopulation, the rural population of south Fukien turned to the sea in search of fresh opportunities to secure a livelihood. With the tacit support of local officials and the scholar gentry, the merchants played the pivotal role in long-distance trade, and the commercial networks they established spanned the entire China coast, making the port city of Amoy (Xiamen) a major centre for maritime trade. In the work, the author discusses four interrelated spheres of activity, namely, the traditional rural sector, the port cities, the coastal trade and the overseas trade links. He argues that the creative use of clan organizations was key to the growth of the Amoy network along the coast as well as overseas.

Using the concept of boundaries, physical and cultural, to understand the development of China’s maritime southeast in late Imperial times, and its interactions across maritime East Asia and the broader Asian Seas, these linked essays by a senior scholar in the field challenge the usual readings of Chinese history from the centre. After an opening essay which positions China’s southeastern coast within a broader view of maritime Asia, the first section of the book looks at boundaries, between “us” and “them”, Chinese and other, during this period. The second section looks at the challenges to such rigid demarcations posed by the state and existed in the status quo. The third section discusses movements of people, goods and ideas across national borders and cultural boundaries, seeing tradition and innovation as two contesting forces in a constant state of interaction, compromise and reconciliation. This approach underpins a fresh understanding of China’s boundaries and the distinctions that separate China from the rest of the world. In developing this theme, Ng Chin-keong draws on many years of writing and research in Chinese and European archives. Of interest to students of migration, of Chinese history, and of the long term perspective on relations between China and its region, Ng’s analysis provides a crucial background to the historical shared experience of the people in Asian maritime zones. The result is a novel way of approaching Chinese history, argued from the perspective of a fresh understanding of China’s relations with neighbouring territories and the populations residing there, and of the nature of tradition and its persistence in the face of changing circumstances.

This study eschews the uncritical acceptance of secondary sources that has characterized studies in this field, going back to and reinterpreting previously neglected primary sources, thereby enabling it to chart linkages between the European and Asian trades that have been regarded as parallel but unrelated (or at best competing) activities. In so doing, the work sheds new light on this crucial period.

The present volume, composed of six contributions by different scholars, seeks to show the intensity of exchange relations and trading networks in the early modern to late imperial "East Asian 'Mediterranean'", arguing that these exchange relations and trading networks already had their roots and origins in the tenth to thirteenth centuries at the latest. In this context, the first two contributions discuss local society and socio-economic changes within local Chinese society during the Song to Ming periods - while the other four contributions concentrate on aspects of commercial exchange and administration during the Qing period. Two contributions in particular analyze the indirect and direct importance respectively of religion for social life and commercial activities as a basic precondition for success in non-religious affairs. One chapter investigates Sino-Ryukyuan trade relations during the Kangxi reign (1662-1722), another one Sino-Taiwanese trade relations in late imperial China, while one chapter is in particular dedicated to an analysis of the characteristics and developments within the maritime trade administration of the Manchu Qing (1644-1911) government, with emphasis on hitherto rather neglected aspects, for example institutional-administrative details, including questions such as if Manchus or Han Chinese were responsible for the administration of trade.

This unique volume provides a broad introduction to the ethnic Chinese business in Asia, with focus on the ethnic Chinese in East and Southeast Asia. The growing interest in ethnic Chinese business reflects its importance in these two regional economies, and its relations with China's economy — the world's new economic powerhouse. It examines the nature and characteristics of the ethnic Chinese business, such as business networks, family business and conglomerates, concepts of xinyong and guanxi, and entrepreneurship and management. It also examines the input of history and culture in the formation and operation of ethnic Chinese business. The second half of the book is devoted to detailed regional studies, covering the Chinese in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This book provides an excellent introduction for tertiary students in business schools, and for prospective businessmen who wish to do business with the Chinese in East and Southeast Asia.

Modern bank insurance is traced to its roots in The Chinese Cornerstone of Modern Banking: The Canton Guaranty System and the Origins of Bank Deposit Insurance 1780-1933. Frederic Delano Grant, Jr. provides new understandings of the Canton System, collective responsibility for debt at Canton, and the history of deposit insurance. The Canton Guaranty System inspired radical reform in New York in 1829 – the ancestor of all modern deposit insurance. Yet it was never the success imagined, and soon failed. In the Opium War, the Chinese government as implicit guarantor was forced to pay its debts in full on 23 July 1843. The afflictions of the Chinese system, including moral hazard, too big to fail, and unenforced laws, remain familiar today.

This volume seeks to critically review the contemporary state of maritime historiography, as it stands at the volume’s publication date of 1995. The volume is comprised of thirteen essays, each focused on the recent research into the maritime concerns of a particular geographical location, listed as follows: Australia; Canada; China; Denmark; Germany; Greece; Ibero-America; India; the Netherlands; the Ottoman Empire; Spain; the United States; and a final chapter concerning historians and maritime labour in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. One concern made evident by the collection is the lack of stable identity and cohesive aims within maritime history, the subject holds many conflicting definitions and concepts. The purpose of this volume is to explore the recent developments in maritime history, plus the growth of scholarly interest, to provide a ‘beacon and stimulus for future work’ and to clearly direct and define maritime historiography toward a solid position in the field of history.